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Story:Star Trek - Infinity/Chapter 7
---- The shuttle came out of warp and I eased up on the throttle. I smiled as the familiar shape of the Infinity came into view. It was good to be home, or rather, the closest thing I had to a home. Syln tapped his combadge. “Ensign Syln to Commander Chekov.” There was a long pause, and after a moment the ensign repeated his message, but there was still no response. “That’s strange. Most of the ship’s lights are out, and the shuttlebay door is already open.” The ensign turned to me. “Take her in cadet; slow and steady.” I nodded, and gently flew the shuttlecraft in. We landed, and we headed for the shuttle’s hatch. The five of us stepped out, and I blinked my eyes. The hangar was pitch black, save for the glow coming from the inside of the shuttle; it was quite eerie. The ensign tried his combadge again, but there was still no response. “Alright cadets, I want you to stay here while I go check out the rest of the ship.” Gro’kog stepped forward. “Sir, is that really such a good idea? A hostile force might’ve taken control of the ship.” Mathias grabbed a phaser pistol from the shuttle’s storage closet and replied, “If there is something dangerous onboard, I don’t want you cadets caught up in it. Now, stay in the shuttle until I tell you everything is clear.” He entered the hallway, aiming his phaser in front of him. The doors closed behind him, and the room was silent once more. Denarchia glanced at us. “I wonder what happened to the crew?” Phoebe quickly replied, “I bet they were eaten! I watched this old earth movie once, and there were these kids that went into this house, and they all-” Phoebe was cut off as the shuttle’s communicator chirped, and Ensign Syln’s voice said, “The crew seems to have just…vanished. There’s no trace of them at all. I’m going to see if I can-” I waited for a moment. “Ensign?...Computer, locate Ensign Mathias Syln.” The computer replied; its voice emotionless and deadpan, “Ensign Syln is not aboard the Infinity.” Phoebe let out a whimper, and Denarchia said, “What do you mean, he’s not on board?” The computer answered, “Ensign Syln left the ship at 1734 hours.” Denarchia looked bewildered. “What was his source of transport?” The computer replied, “Unknown.” “Scan the ship for any ambiguous life forms.” The computer replied, “Insufficient power.” Denarchia grabbed a phaser pistol from the storage closet and strapped it to her belt. “Looks like we’ll have to find out on our own then.” Gro’kog stepped in front of her. “Hold on a second,” Phoebe added, “Yeah, we can’t just go out there!” A glare from both Denarchia and Gro’kog silenced her, and Gro’kog continued, “What I was going to say, is that you don’t have the authority to make that decision. I’m the highest ranking cadet here.” Denarchia replied, “Actually, that’s not true.” She glanced at me and begrudgingly finished, “Destiny is.” All eyes turned to me, and Gro’kog scoffed. “She’s a pilot!” Denarchia replied, “She still outranks you. I see three bars on her chest, and only two on yours.” Gro’kog turned to me, his voice filled with bitterness, “Alright then, ‘Commander,’ what do you think we should do?” Up until that point, I had remained silent, but as Gro’kog looked at me, his expression void of any respect, I knew I had to prove to them that I knew what I was doing. I stood up as straight as I could, still dwarfed by everyone else in the room, but I wouldn’t let them see that I was intimidated by that. I looked Gro’kog right in the eye, letting not a single hint of fear or doubt escape me. “I agree with Denarchia; we have to check out the ship and find out what’s wrong. We can’t just stay in here forever.” Inside I knew that wasn’t completely true; we could easily lock on to and beam anything we needed into the shuttle, but I didn’t say that out loud. If there really was something onboard, we couldn’t just stand around and wait for it to find us. I continued, “We’ll search the ship, but we’ll do it together.” Gro’kog cut in, “That’s ridiculous! It’ll take forever to search the ship that way.” Before I could answer, Phoebe responded, “Yeah, and if we split up, we’ll get eaten, one by one.” Now it was my turn to flare at Phoebe. Gro’kog looked at me defiantly. “And what if I refuse to listen to your orders?” Denarchia growled at him, “Then you’ll be facing a court martial once we find the rest of the crew.” Phoebe added, “If you don’t get eaten first.” All three of us turned in unison and said, “Phoebe, shut up!” She shrank back and replied, “Just trying to help.” ---- The four of us stepped through the hallway exiting the shuttlebay hangar, and headed in the direction of the turbolift. I stopped as we passed the entrance to sickbay. “Hold on everyone, let’s take a look in here.” I stepped inside. “Denarchia, guard the door.” She nodded, and the rest of us began looking around the room. I went over to the bed that Nicole had been in before we left, and said quietly, “Oh Nicky, not when I had just gotten you back.” I whirled around as I heard a scream from Dr. Layn’s Office. Gro’kog and I rushed inside and I shouted, “Phoebe!” I spotted her cowering in the corner, by that time Denarchia had entered the room as well, and she said worriedly, “What’s going on? I heard someone scream!” Phoebe let out a moan. “It’s over there!” She pointed to the other end of the room, and we all looked. Something flashed, and Denarchia aimed her phaser rifle at it. We all moved closer, and a voice said, “Please … nature … the … emergency.” Denarchia lowered her rifle and I said, “It’s the Emergency Medical Hologram. Hang on; let me see if I can boost his power input.” I tapped around on the EMH’s control panel, but after a few moments I said, “It’s no use; his program’s been damaged.” Denarchia replied, “We should go check out the rest of the ship then.” I nodded, and the four of us headed towards the turbolift again. As we left the room though, I thought I heard the EMH say something, but I couldn’t make it out. “Not … safe … weak … perish …” ---- We stepped onto the bridge, and I shined my floodlight around. Denarchia sighed. “Empty, just like the rest of the ship.” I was about to reenter the turbolift, when I spotted something. I moved to get a closer look, and found that it was a phaser rifle, or what remained of one. Its barrel had been twisted into a u-shape, and much of its shell was burned away, with a green sticky substance dripping from it. I decided it best not to touch it, and instead scanned it with my tricorder. “It’s acidic, but there’s some sort of biological residue on it.” Denarchia turned to me. “What kind?” I tapped my tricorder. “Inconclusive.” It was now more than ever that I wished Nicky were here with me; she would’ve been able to figure out what it was. I turned and headed out into the hallway, and Denarchia followed. She glanced at me. “This isn’t looking good. I know you didn’t saying anything out loud, but you and I both know that was Syln’s rifle, and chances are whatever produced that acid got to him.” I heard a scream, and both Denarchia and I took off back down the hall. “You think she’s just seeing things again?” The sharp sound of a phaser discharge echoed through the hall, and I replied, “No way, Phoebe doesn’t have a phaser!” We rushed through the doors and back onto the bridge. Phoebe was wailing on the floor, and nearby Gro’kog was cursing about something. Denarchia spoke, “What the heck just happened?!” Phoebe shouted, “It was huge!” I just stared at her for a moment, and she closed her mouth. Gro’kog answered Denarchia’s question, “Someone, or some''thing'' came out of the Jefferies tube hatch; I didn’t get a great look--mainly because this whiny human alerted it to our presence--but I did manage to see that it was green, and three-legged. As soon as she screamed, it spat something acidic in her direction, but it missed. It made a dash for the turbolift, and it moved fast. I tried to aim for its head, but I ended up clipping its shoulder instead; spattered blood all over the wall too.” My eyes widened. “Where is this blood?” He pointed to the wall adjacent to the turbolift. “Right over there.” I spotted it, and pulled out my tricorder. After scanning it, I said, “It’s very similar to the other liquid, sans its acidic properties. The computer is scanning for matches.” I waited for a moment as the search was completed, and then I said, “Exact match found. It says…oh no.” Denarchia responded, “What is it?” I replied, “We have to get to Main Engineering, now!” We rushed into the turbolift, and when we exited, I took off in the direction of Main Engineering. As I stepped through the doors I said, “Computer, have all ship commands been transferred to engineering?” The computer responded, “Affirmative.” “Can ship wide scans be done from this location?” “Affirmative.” “Scan the ship for life forms.” The computer whirred for a moment as it carried out the command,.“There are eleven life forms onboard, all located in Main Engineering.” Phoebe replied, “But there are only four of-” Her eyes widened as she realized what was going on. Denarchia shone her floodlight at the ceiling, revealing seven green tripedal creatures hanging from it. Denarchia whispered, “What the heck are those things?” I replied; my voice filled with fear, “Species 8472…”